He dyed worth neer 10001. which (considering his charity) was more than I expected.

To conclude, he had a high esteeme for the Royal Societie, having sayd" that Natural Philosophy was removed from the Universities to Gresham Colledge" (meaning the Royal Societie that meets there), and the Royal Societie (generally) had the like for him: and he would long since have been ascribed a member there, but for the sake of one or two persons, whom he tooke to be his enemies. In their meeting at Gresham Colledge is his picture,* drawne by the life, 1663, by a good hand, which they much esteeme, and severall copies have been taken of it.

[The following letter, addressed to John Aubrey, Esq. contains an account of his death and funeral, to which is added a copy of his will. EDITOR.]

Hardwick, January the 16th, 1679,

WORTHY SIR,

HAVING been abroad

about businesse for some days, I received, at my

He did me the honour to sitt for his picture to Jo. Baptist Caspars, an excellent painter, and 'tis a good piece, I presented it to the Societie twelve yeares since,

coming home, your letter of the third of this month, which evidences the great esteeme you have for Mr. Hobbes, for which I returne you my humble thanks, and particularly for the paines you have been pleased to take in the large account of what you yourselfe, Mr. Anthony à Wood, and Sir George Ent designe for Mr. Hobbes his honour. I am glad Mr. Crooke has received his Life in Prose, which was the onely thing Mr. Halleley got possession of, and sent it to him by my hand. Mr. Halleley tells me now, that Mr. Hobbes (in the time of his sicknesse) told him he had promised it to Mr. Crooke, but said he was unwilling it should ever be published as written by himselfe; and I beleeve it was some such motive, which made him burne those Latin verses Mr. Crooke sent him about that time. For those Latine verses you mention about Ecclesiastical Power, I remember them, for I writ them out, but know not what became of them, unle sc he presented them to Judge Vaughan, or burned them, as you seem to intimate.

He fell sick about the middle of October last. His disease was the stranguary, and the physitians judged it incurable by reason of his great age and naturall decay. About the 20th of November, my Lord being to remove from Chatsworth to Hardwick, Mr. Hobbes would not be left behind; and therefore with a feather-bed laid into the coach, upon which he lay warme clad, he was

conveyed safely, and was in appearance as well after that little journey as before it. But seven or eight days after, his whole right side was taken with the dead palsy, and at the same time he was made speechlesse. He lived after this seven days, taking very little nourishment, slept well, and by intervalls endeavoured to speak, but could not. In the whole time of his sicknesse he was free from fever. He seemed therefore to dye rather for want of the fuell of life, (which was spent in him) and meer weaknesse and decay, than by ye power of his disease, which was thought to be only an effect of his age and weaknesse. He was born the 5th of Aprill, in the yeare 1588, and died the 4th of December, 1679. He was put into a woollen shroud and coffin, which was covered with a white sheet, and upon that a black herse cloth, and so carryed upon men's shoulders, a little mile to the church. The company, consisting of the family and neighbours that came to his funerall, and attended him to his grave, were very handsomely entertained with wine, burned and raw, cake, biscuit, &c. He was buried in the parish church of Hault Hucknall, close adjoining to the raile of the monument of the grandmother of the present Earle of Devonshire, with the service of the Church of England by the minister of the parish. It is intended to cover his grave with a stone of black marble as soon as it can be got ready, with a plain inscription of his

name, the place of his birth, and the time of that and of his death. As to his will, it is sent up to London to be proved there, and by the copy of it, which I here send you, I beleeve you will judge

it fitt to make no mention of it at all in what you designe to gett written by way of Commentary on his life. As for the palsy in his hands, it began in France, before the yeare 1650, and has grown upon him by degrees ever since; but Mr. Halleley remembers not how long it has disabled him to write legibly.

Mr. Halleley never heard of a pension from the French king, and beleeves there was no such thing ever intended. He desires you to accept of his thanks for your favourable remembrance of him, and of the returne of his respects to you by should want any thing And if hereafter you which we know, that might contribute to the hon of Mr. Hobbes's memory, upon the least notice, shall readily be imparted to you. In the mean time, with much respect, I rest,

me.

y Second, and in the yeare of our Lord God, 1677. I, Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, in the county of Wilts, gent. make this my last Will and Testament: First, I bequeath to Mary Tirell, daughter of my deceased brother, Edmund Hobbes, forty pounds. Item, I bequeath to Elenor Harding, daughter also of my deceased brother, Edmund Hobbes, forty pounds. Item, I bequeath to Elizabeth Alaby, the daughter of Thomas Alaby, two hundred pounds, and because she is an orphan, and committed by me to the tuition of my executor, my will is, that she should be maintained decently by my executor, till she be 16 yeares of age, and that then the said two hundred pounds be delivered into her hands, being intended for her furtherance in marriage, but let her dispose of it as she please; and if it happen that the said Elizabeth Alaby die before she come to the age of 16 yeares, then my will is, that the said 2001. be divided equally between the said Mary Tirell and Elenor Harding. Item, whereas it hath pleased my good Lord, the Earle of Devonshire, to bid me oftentimes heretofore, and now at the making of this my last will, to dispose therein of one hundred pounds, to be paid by his Lords", for which I give him most humble thanks; I doe give and dispose of the same in this manner: There be five grand-children of my brother, Edmund Hobbes, to the eldest whereof, whose name is Thomas Hobbes, I have heretofore given a